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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3882761" data-attributes="member: 4937">Errr... You say that like it is a rhetorical question.&nbsp; Ok, two can play that game.&nbsp; Isn't it obvious what would be better?Ideally, the AI behind monsters should be constructed with some sort of theory of mind such that to the human observer, he consciously or unconsciously describes the actions he sees the computer's avatar's performing as being guided by a rational mind.&nbsp; We've been doing this for ages.&nbsp; One of the most famous examples would be the difference between Pac Man's AI, and the AI for the ghosts in Ms. Pac Man.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most AI's constructed like that run short events based on examining the game state and have a bit of built in randomness in choosing what to do next.&nbsp; The goal is not so much in getting the AI to behave in the smartest possible fashion, is it is to get it to behave in a manner which is believable to the observer.&nbsp; Believable minds don't act in predictable manners and can't be consistantly manipulated.Granted, AI like that is more complex (and hense more expensive), but you see that sort of AI outside of a MMORPG environment.&nbsp;&nbsp; The reason you see really really simple AI's in a MMORPG game is simple - performance.&nbsp; Simple scripts eat up few CPUs.&nbsp; And while I'm not an expert in programming MMORPGs, I'd guess that there is a boost in emmersiveness if for any given event, all the clients that observe the event can predict how the monsters will move next.&nbsp; So really, we are doing it this way not because it makes for a better game, or even to a certain extent because we don't know how to do it better, but because given the hardware/bandwidth contraints that an MMORPG opporates under a more sophisticated AI causes other issues.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 3882761, member: 4937"] Errr... You say that like it is a rhetorical question. Ok, two can play that game. Isn't it obvious what would be better? Ideally, the AI behind monsters should be constructed with some sort of theory of mind such that to the human observer, he consciously or unconsciously describes the actions he sees the computer's avatar's performing as being guided by a rational mind. We've been doing this for ages. One of the most famous examples would be the difference between Pac Man's AI, and the AI for the ghosts in Ms. Pac Man. Most AI's constructed like that run short events based on examining the game state and have a bit of built in randomness in choosing what to do next. The goal is not so much in getting the AI to behave in the smartest possible fashion, is it is to get it to behave in a manner which is believable to the observer. Believable minds don't act in predictable manners and can't be consistantly manipulated. Granted, AI like that is more complex (and hense more expensive), but you see that sort of AI outside of a MMORPG environment. The reason you see really really simple AI's in a MMORPG game is simple - performance. Simple scripts eat up few CPUs. And while I'm not an expert in programming MMORPGs, I'd guess that there is a boost in emmersiveness if for any given event, all the clients that observe the event can predict how the monsters will move next. So really, we are doing it this way not because it makes for a better game, or even to a certain extent because we don't know how to do it better, but because given the hardware/bandwidth contraints that an MMORPG opporates under a more sophisticated AI causes other issues. [/QUOTE]

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